Matthew Ellman - A recipe for teacher learning

Sudan, Russia, Philippines,

Okay.

Okay. So apologies for the

delay. I was just getting

everything set up to stream on

Facebook which we are doing

now. So, um welcome to everyone

who's joining us. I know people

are still coming into the room

but I'm gonna just run through

a couple of things. I said, um

just before about with a chat,

just make sure that you're

typing to everyone when you're,

when you're typing, so you just

need to select everyone from

the little menu drop down menu

by the hosts on panelists or

everyone. So, just make sure

you type in to which I consider

one is anyway. So I probably

didn't mean to say that. Um and

welcome to our fourth webinar

for World Teachers Day um which

was actually yesterday but

we've decided that it's today,

tomorrow, and Friday as well

because why not? Um and very

happy to be joined by Matthew

Elman. He's gonna be talking

about a recipe for teacher

learning. Um I'm gonna stop

talking very soon but just

before I do uh I'm just gonna

run through a couple of things.

If you've um been to all of the

webinars or webinars with us

before you probably know all of

this anyway. Um but just to run

through it. Cos it's quite nice

to be reminded. Um chat and Q&A

as I said. Chat just make sure

you type into everyone. The Q&A

is for um is for questions. So

if you have any questions for

um for Matt then just um type

those into the Q and A. Maybe

wait until a little bit later

in the session cos he might

have answered your question. Um

after you've answered it after

you've asked it. Um but anyway

yeah, chat is for chat and Q&A

is for um for questions.

Certificates, just run through

the certificates, um different

ways to get your certificates.

It's um first of all, it's a

PDF uh document and it'll be

blank. So, it won't have your

name on it. Uh you need to

download it and save it and

then reopen it and type in your

name and save it again and um

and then you'll have that

certificate with your name on

it. Um different ways you get

it. So, at the end, talk

towards the end of the um the

session. I'll put a link into

the chat and to the feedback

survey um into the chat box. Um

although I appreciate that if

you're watching on a mobile

phone um or a tablet, you won't

be able to click on those links

but don't worry because um at

the end of the session, you um

wanna ends, AA window should

open with the feedback survey

and you can complete the

feedback survey at the end the

feedback survey er the reward

is that you get the link to the

certificate with instructions

on how to download that. If you

um don't get the feedback

survey um or you close that

window without answering the

feedback questions. Um again

don't worry because you will

get an email tomorrow 24 hours

after the session has ended and

in that um email er you'll be

thanked for coming and there'll

be links there to the

certificates. The recording and

um and the survey as well. Um

as I say er we will be

recording a session. Um and

that'll be available um

probably later this evening or

tomorrow morning. So if er if

you need to leave early er or

if you have any colleagues or

friends who want to come but

couldn't um they'll be able to

watch the recording later today

or tomorrow. So fantastic. And

that's pretty much it for me on

the housekeeping side of

things. So I'm gonna hand over

to the wonderful Matthew Elman

who is professional learning

and development manager at

Cambridge University Press. Um

and he is gonna be talking to

you um for the next 45 minutes

and um then we'll take some

questions. So Matt over to you.

Thanks a lot, Paul. And hi,

everyone. Welcome and thanks

for joining. Um, and happy

World Teachers Day for

yesterday. It probably should

be a week, I think, shouldn't

it? World Teachers Week. Um But

uh yeah well done for doing

what you do. Uh II haven't been

teaching over the past few

years. I've been training

teachers uh and training

trainers as well. Here's a

picture of me. Pre-pandemic

when we were still allowed to

train people face to face but

this talk is really based on um

some of the things that I've

learned while training trainers

and training teachers. Um and

in uh in cooperation with my my

colleague and friend Peter Luke

and Tony The man pointing here.

Uh we've we've written a book.

It's called From Teacher to

Trainer. And it's gonna be

published um in about 5 months

by Cambridge University Press.

So you're getting a kind of

sneak peek here. Um of what's

coming in that book. As posted,

I'm professional learning and

development manager at

Cambridge University Press um

and I work with with teachers

and institutions and ministries

of education um around the

world to to uh plan and deliver

teacher development programs

for them. but I'd like to hear

a little bit about you. We'll

find out a bit about you. I

already know that you're from

all corners of the globe which

is fantastic. But could you

just put in the chat box um

either A or B here? Just tell

me what you do. Are you a

teacher? So you're in charge of

your own development? Or are

you a trainer or a mentor or a

manager and in charge of other

people's development as well?

If you put B then I'll assume

that you're both. Maybe you're

you're also a teacher.

So, it looks like we've got a

mixture in the chat. I'm gonna

say maybe seventy-five 75%

teachers and then 25% trainers,

something like that. So that's

great. It's it's good to have

um both groups represented

here. Because I'm gonna be

asking you questions in the

chat box as we go through. Um

but the key thing I think is

that this session should be

useful to you. Whether you're a

teacher or whether you're um

training other people. Um I

think that you'll get some

useful takeaways. regardless of

which role you um So the

session's called um a recipe

for teacher learning and I just

wanna start by explaining

exactly what I mean by teacher

learning. What are we aiming

for? Because when we start

using a recipe, when we start

cooking, we usually have an

idea of what we're trying to

cook. Um what kind of uh food

we're gonna be eating at the

end of it. So, in this case,

what we're aiming for is

sustained improvements in

teaching knowledge and

practice. So, quite often,

teacher development activity

doesn't aim at this kind of

sustained improvement, we we

might attend a session and we

might learn some useful

activities. Um we might get

some useful ideas that we can

apply in the next class that we

teach. But it's not necessarily

a sustained change in the

teaching that we deliver. So,

in this case, teacher learning

means sustained improvements to

teaching knowledge and

practice. So, it's things that

we know but it's also things

that we do. Um and I think it's

important to highlight both of

those. We're also aiming for

changes that are context

sensitive. So changes that make

a difference in whatever uh

teaching context you work in.

Obviously, it's very different

teaching um university students

in Indonesia than it is

teaching primary students in

Moldova or you know, whatever

context you're working in. Um

they all have their own

idiosyncrasies, their own

challenges, but also their own

opportunities for teaching. So,

it's really important that the

changes we make to teaching are

relevant to the context that we

work in. And finally, what

we're really aiming for and

this is the most important

thing is for the changes that

we make to teaching to have an

impact on student learning.

There is no point doing any

kind of teacher development

that doesn't also improve

student outcomes, student

learning outcomes. and there

were lots of people that have

said that before me, that's not

a new idea. Here, for example,

you have Silvana Richardson um

and uh current ITF or president

Gabrielle Diaz Maggioli saying

that the main goal of CPD is to

effect changes in teaching so

that it results in enhanced

student learning. And uh

something similar here from

Martin Parrott um long time

ago, 30 years ago, saying the

same thing. So this is not a

new idea but it's a really

important idea That if you

develop your own teaching or if

you develop other people's

teaching what you're really

trying to do is improve student

learning outcomes. Generally

and we're gonna see this as we

go through what we want to do

is kind of follow this little

train from input Um so learning

about things whether that's in

a in a training session or in a

reading group or from from

watching a video like this. A

webinar like this. Through to

implementation. So making

changes in the classroom.

Through then to impact on

student learning. So I'm gonna

come back to this little train.

Um to remind you of this. But

just try and keep it a back of

your mind as we go through And

as I say, impact is the key

thing here. This is what we

really, really want to uh, to

bear in mind, and to make sure

that that happens. So when I

say it's a recipe for teacher

learning, it's also a recipe

for student learning. That's

very important. So, over the

next half an hour or so, um

we're gonna follow this recipe.

We're gonna look at how to

prepare, what you need to do to

to get ready Um we're gonna

look at the ingredients that

you need, the method, the steps

that you need to go through, um

and a few serving suggestions

at the end and all of this will

become clear, I hope, as we go

through, and uh as Paul has

mentioned, there'll be time for

questions at the end but if you

have questions as we go

through, put them in the Q&A

box. and we can we can deal

with them at the end. So, first

of all, getting prepared Now,

if you are planning to uh cook

a meal then, there are a few

things that you will probably

do before you start cooking.

So, you'll probably decide what

to make. Um and you might need

some help deciding. You might

need to flick through a recipe

book or you might look online

for a few recipes for a few

ideas but you'll decide what

you're gonna make. And then

you'll see how much time you

need and you kind of plan

backwards from uh the time that

you want to eat. Um and think

about how much time you've got

for preparation, for cooking,

and so on. You'll prepare your

ingredients. You make sure you

got the right tools, the right

utensils, and I hope that

you'll wash your hands as well.

Very important. So thinking

about this this analogy, what

do you think that you might do

before you develop your own

teaching or before you develop

other people's teaching?

Answers in the chat box I'll

give you a few minutes to think

about this Look at this list on

the left give me your ideas for

how you might tweak that list

for teacher development. What

would you do before you start

developing your own teaching Or

someone else's teaching?

Alright, some good ideas coming

in Yeah, you're gonna do some

planning, you might do a needs

analysis, set some goals

Wash your hands Philomena.

Excellence. Yeah, you might

decide a new approach

Fantastic. Good Right, so

you've got the idea. The first

thing that we need to do is

decide on your aims, right? And

if you're a teacher then you

might have other people

deciding on your development

aims as well. You might have

people in your institution

deciding what you need to

learn. But it's really

important that you also have a

say in that and that you also

kind of take control of that

yourself. Um if you're a

trainer that's this is a good

thing to remember. To give

teachers AA say in what they er

want to learn or how they want

to develop. Because if people

don't have that choice then

they're a lot less invested in

it. So you decide on your aims.

You also plan to work probably

over several months. This is a

surprise sometimes to people

that um that it takes so long

making changes to your teaching

takes a long time Um and it's

not something that you can do

um in a day or in a week or

even in a couple of weeks.

There's been some uh some

interesting research on this.

So there is a review of

literature a couple of years

ago or 6 years ago now. Um and

I'll just let you read this.

But what you can see here is

that successful teacher

development takes at least two

terms. So probably about 6

months at least. Um or even

longer. And that doesn't mean

that you can't get results in a

shorter time. But what it means

is that really meaningful

changes to teaching take time

to to be embedded. Um and to

solidify. So it's gonna take

some time Uh which is why that

you need to plan that time in.

You'll also prepare your

ingredients and I'll come back

to your ingredients in a little

while We don't have utensils

for um future development but

what we do want to make sure

we've got is the right

environment. So, when it comes

to environment, what we're

thinking about is the kind of

school setup. It might not be

something that you have control

over when you're a teacher Um

but a good school setup for

teacher learning is a school

where there's order and

discipline and strong policies

in the school It's a school

where there's a lot of

collaboration between teachers

where teachers get support from

leadership where they have

opportunities for professional

development and there's a kind

of general culture of trust and

respect. Um and it's not a

surprise that in institutions

that have this kind of culture

where there's this environment.

Teachers have a lot more

professional satisfaction. So

they like their jobs more and

they stay in their jobs longer.

No super prices that I don't

think. Um but what is

interesting is that student

achievement also improves. So

when you have this kind of

positive environment for

learning in a school it's not

just teachers that learn more,

it's students that learn more

as well. The authors of this

study um Craft and Pape did

another one shortly after that.

and they looked at this and

asked the question, does the

professional environment in a

school really make a difference

to how much teachers learn? and

the answer is yes, But you

might be surprised at the way

this works. what this graph

shows is teaches years of

experience at the bottom and

how much impact they have on

learning um on the side here

and you can see that after 1

year of experience, teachers

have about the same impact on

student learning regardless of

what kind of school they're

working in. So, it doesn't

matter if you work in AA good

environment or a weak

environment for professional

development. After one year,

teachers kinda have the same

impact. And it's quite close

even after 2 years but then it

starts to diverge. And what you

see here is that the dotted

line. These are teachers

working in schools that don't

have this positive environment

for professional development.

Um and you can see that after 3

years they plateau. They don't

get any better at teaching and

they also don't enjoy their

jobs. Um as much as teachers

who are in schools more

positive environment. The dash

line at the top shows us the

best schools. The schools with

a really strong environment for

professional learning and these

teachers not only uh have a

bigger impact, they're more

successful um in terms of

student outcomes, but they keep

getting better over time. Um

and even after 10 years of

teaching, they're still

improving. So this is a really

powerful thing. And obviously

if you are just a teacher, um

You might not be able to to

influence these things very

much in your school. Um but if

you're a trainer or a manager

then it's really something to

think about carefully. I think

So these are the things we need

to do before developing and I

mean, you might also wanna wash

your hands. It's it's never a

bad thing to wash your hands,

is it? Teachers should wash

their hands as much as chefs

Okay.

our preparation tasks, let's

take a look at how ingredients

Just gonna pop the chat up

here. so I can see what you're

saying. Alright, now the good

news for ingredients is that

there are not many Um in fact,

there are only three

ingredients that you really

need. The first one is two

classrooms . You know, when you

have a list of ingredients for

recipe, it tells you how much.

Um it tells you the amount.

Well, the amount of classrooms

that you need is two. I'll

explain why in a minute. You

need a pinch of expert input.

Um and I'll explain that as

well. And then The third thing

that you need is local

flavourings. And you might be

able to guess what that means

because we talked about context

earlier. If possible, it's also

useful to have some assistance

in the kitchen. So, these could

be peers, they could be your

colleagues, you might have a

mentor in school, or they might

be a trainer that you're able

to work with. Um, it doesn't

really matter which one,

they're all useful in different

ways. But if you can, get some

assistance to help you, with

this, er, teacher learning

recipe, you'll make life easier

on yourself. Let me explain

these in a bit more detail. So,

first ingredient, you need a

classroom and some students and

you need two because one of

these classrooms is gonna be

for you to see teaching. It's

for you to to see what other

people do and to learn from

other teachers. So, that could

be a demo class, um and if

you're on AA kind of training

course, it's probably your

trainer that will set up a demo

class and demonstrate

techniques for you. It could be

a colleague's class. So, you

might go and visit um and

observe one of your colleagues

teaching Or it could be a class

that you watch on video. Um and

there are loads and loads of

lessons on YouTube. Um some

better than others but you can

you can learn from all of them.

You can kinda see what works

and what doesn't work. Um when

you watch a class on video. So

all of these ways of seeing

teaching are really valuable.

But you need two classrooms

because you also need to

practice teaching yourself. So

you need an opportunity to

implement the techniques and

the approaches that you've seen

other people doing and you

might do that through micro

teaching In the training room.

Uh you might do it through

teaching practice classes where

you've got a trainer um at the

back of the room watching you

and the students are there. and

they kind of know that you're

that you're a trainee or you

could do this in your own class

and for most of you, um your

own class is gonna be the real

the best sandpit really for you

to to try things out.

Now, in the book, um Peter and

I call this this whole kind of

area, the practical, that this

is one key ingredient for

teacher learning that you need

this practical element to your

training um and it has these

two sides. One side is for you

to to see how other people do

things and the other side is

for you to try doing it

yourself. And I think it's

quite, I mean, it's quite kind

of um self-evident why this is

important. If you think about

skills like learning to drive

or learning to dance, um you

need to do these things. I can

tell you, everything I know

about learning to drive. I

can't take you very much about

learning to dance. But even if

I could, you would still need

to to try these things

yourself. Uh you need to get in

a car and practice using the

pedals, using the gear stick,

turning the wheel, and it's the

same with teaching. You can

read as much as you want about

teaching. You can see other

people teaching but you need to

do it your to to get better at

it and you've probably learnt

this the hard way during the

pandemic That um you may not

have had experience teaching

online before. But I'm sure you

have lots of experience now. Um

and you're probably quite good

at it now because you've had to

do it. Um over the past two

years. Or eighteen months.

However long it's been. Since

we could uh not talk about

covid. The second input is,

sorry, the second ingredient is

expert input. And by this, I

mean, uh, things like teaching

terminology, so they're kind of

specific words that we use to

talk about teaching, or to talk

about language. It might be

theories of learning, that you

learn uh to try and help you um

guide your teaching methodology

and uh your decisions in the

classroom. Or it might be

findings from research. Um and

I've already shown you a couple

of my research.

this kind of group of

ingredients is what Peter and I

refer to as the professional.

So, we've got the practical

side of things but we've also

got this professional side of

things Drawing from insights

from research and from Other

parts of the profession And

this is important for a few

reasons. First of all, because

we wanna get the best results

for our learners. So we want to

know how to do things better.

And if research has has found

something that works, we should

be applying that. Uh we also

want teachers to be able to

access um resources for

themselves and develop further

and that's very difficult if

you don't know the terminology

that we use for example. Um or

if you don't know certain key

concepts. So getting exposed to

some of this um some of these

theories or these terms or this

research helps you then to

explore further if you want to.

We also want to do this to

learn from uh people in other

contexts so that we can expand

our horizons um and get ideas

and and get um ways of thinking

about things from people that

are working in different ways

with different challenges. And

very importantly, we want to

get this expert input in order

to understand how and when to

adapt things and that brings me

on to the third ingredient

which is our local flavourings.

And by this, I mean, the needs

of the teaching context, And

the needs and the beliefs and

the experiences of the

individual teacher. The key

thing here is to bridge the gap

between training and the

classroom. And you can probably

think of training that you

attended where you kind of

thought to yourself, this is

really nice, it's really

interesting, but I'm not sure

how to apply this, and I'm not

sure how relevant it is to my

classroom And the thing is

really that the person doing

this job, of bridging this gap,

has to be the teacher, because

nobody knows, your classes, um,

and your classrooms and your

teaching context better than

you. So you're the person

that's best placed to bridge

this gap between training in

the classroom. So teacher

learning has to help teachers

think about their context and

think about how they can tweak

things and adapt things so they

work in their context. And this

group of ingredients um called

The Personal. So we've got this

professional um aspect, this

professional domain, theories

and research. We've got the

practical side of seeing people

teaching and teaching yourself

and we've got the personal side

of thinking about your specific

needs and your specific

context.

So, here's how they match up.

And you can think of this in

whichever way works best for

you. Whatever's gonna help you

remember it more. So, two

classrooms, a pinch of input,

and some local flavorings or

these three Ps, practical,

professional, and personal.

These are our ingredients and

it doesn't matter if we're

talking about uh a training

session or a whole course or

you as an individual teacher

trying to improve, you need all

these three ingredients in the

mix.

Let's now look at the methods.

What do you have to do with

these ingredients once you've

got them? Step one is really

simple. You combine them in any

order um and you mix well until

your awareness has been raised.

Let me give you an example of

this. So here we've got a

training session and the

training session is all about

concept checking questions.

Trying to help teachers um

understand and use concept

checking questions in their

teaching. My question for you

is, what is the aim of each

stage? So, we've got three

stages. I'd like you to take a

look at them and in the chat

box, tell me what you think the

trainer is trying to achieve in

each stage. I'll give you a

couple of minutes to uh write

your answers down in the chats.

Let's start with stage one. So

you don't have to type them all

at once. What is the trainer

trying to achieve here in stage

one?

Alright Adrian, thank you very

much. Adrienne says tryna get

to prior knowledge.

Philinas, they're trying to

learn about the teachers. And

that's correct too.

Skimata, thanks Liliana. Yeah,

seeing what teachers know

already. Remember, this is a

training session for teachers.

This is not a lesson plan.

So great. In stage one, the

trainer wants to find out what

teachers already know. Um or

find out about their context.

How about stage two? What's the

trainer trying to do here?

give them some knowledge. Yeah,

thanks Parati. Some input,

Olga. Yeah. Lots of people

saying input. Introducing

ideas. That's a nice way of

putting it. Explain and teach

the concepts. Great Yeah, help

teachers understand the theory

And then in stage three, what's

the trainer's aim here

practice. Yeah and applying

understanding putting it into

practice. Well done guys. Yeah,

so let teachers of practice

applying the theory. So,

hopefully you can see that in

this very short, very simple

training session, we have our

three ingredients. What's the

ingredient in stage one? which

one of our peas have we got in

stage one

This is

a test of whether you

can remember them. Can you

remember the three Ps?

Personal. Well done. Yeah so

this is the personal this is

our thinking about our own

personal teaching context, our

prior knowledge. How about

stage two? Which one of our

piece is stage two? Helena,

well done. Yes. So, this is the

professional side and then, of

course, that means it's stage

three. It's the practical side.

excellence. Let me give you

another example. Just because

in most training sessions you

don't have only three stages.

So, here we've got four stages.

Take a look and see if you can

tell me um whether each stage

is practical, professional, or

personal. I'll give you a

couple of minutes to think

about this

Alright, a couple of you saying

that the first stage is

practical and you're right. So,

in this training session, the

teachers are doing something

straight away. They're

immediately um using the

knowledge and skills that they

already have.

Stage two, as some of you have

said, it's professional. So,

the trainer is giving the

teachers some key principles

from research.

Daniella's got the answer here

and Sylvia for stage three. So

this is practical again. And

the last stage, now, it's

personal. So, you can see we've

got all of the ingredients but

they can come in any order And

here we've got two practical

stages, which is fine, and this

is quite common actually,

because if you remember,

practice is seeing teaching

techniques but it's also um

implementing teaching

techniques. So it's quite

common to have two practical

sessions. Great. So, this is

step one in our method and it's

at this point, on our chain, of

um, our chain towards impact.

So, here we've got some input

and we've raised our teacher

awareness. Step two, is to make

plans now to do something with

that knowledge. So we want to

make plans to implement changes

in the classroom. We wanna

think about what's gonna

happen, what changes are we

gonna make, when will we make

them? And when we do that, what

problems might we have and how

will we solve them? Here's an

example. from our implementing

CCQs session. So, if you're a

teacher and you went to that

training session, you you

understand now what CCQs are

and you have to think about how

you're going to apply that

knowledge when you start

teaching again. So, you might

decide, okay, I'm gonna write

CCQs in my lesson plans now for

the vocabulary that I teach.

So, I'm gonna pre-plan my

concept checking questions.

That's my, this is my goal.

anticipated problems. It might

be that some vocabulary comes

up in, in the class, and I

haven't thought about the

concept checking questions for

that vocabulary. Hm, what can I

do then? Well, maybe I could

just start by focusing on

concept checking the form of

those uh those new words.

Because that's quite easy to

do. Until I feel more

comfortable coming up with

concept checking questions on

the spot. Which is difficult to

do. But the key thing here is

to make a plan to actually take

the knowledge from the training

session and apply it to the

classroom. So now we're at this

point in the chain. Somebody

keeps putting pictures of

olives in the chat. Which I'm

quite impressed cos I didn't

know how to do that. Didn't

know that was possible. But I

don't know what it means. Step

three is to apply this to apply

this plan to make these changes

to the teaching and then to

just see how it goes for um at

least a couple of weeks. What

we want to do here is to allow

repeated opportunities to see

how these changes work out in

the classroom. Obviously, it's

not enough just to try things

once and then decide if they're

good or bad. You need to try

things several times um because

some times they'll work,

sometimes they won't work, and

we need to give things a chance

um, to see whether they are,

are right for our teaching

context. So it takes some time,

and, and you're gonna just,

Apply these changes and

implement the plan that you've

made for at least a couple of

weeks. And then step four is

the final step. Um kind of the

final step. Um because at this

point we want to check whether

the changes that we've made to

our teaching are working. We

want to see if they're having

an impact or the impact that we

want them to have. So, question

for you in the chat box. How

can you check for impact? How

can you check that your

teaching is successful or not?

What could you do? Okay, lots

of people saying assessments.

So, you could give your

students a test, an exam, and

see what comes from their exam

results feedback from students,

the answer says, yeah,

absolutely. Verbal feedback,

you could ask your students

what they think. You could talk

to them. very very uh very

important. It doesn't happen

enough. You could give him a

survey, you could give him a

questionnaire. Fantastic. Yeah,

lots of good ideas. So, you can

ask your peers um to observe

your lessons, ask students for

their feedback, um get samples

of student work, that's another

way. Keep a journal of your own

reflections. There are many,

many different ways that you

can check for impact and check

to see whether these changes

that you made are having the

desired effect. and you might

then repeat step three. So

depending on what you've

learnt, um maybe it's working

well and you wanna continue

doing it, maybe it's not

working so well and you decide

that you need to tweak

something. In which case, you

need to repeat step three, go

back, um and try things again

for another, another couple of

weeks.

Alright. So at this point,

hopefully, having completed the

four steps of our methods,

we're at this point in our

thread of impact Um the changes

that we've made to teaching are

having a real effect and

students are learning more.

That's the key thing that our

students are um getting better

learning outcomes because of

the teacher learning that we

have cooked up.

Alright, let me just finish by

giving you a few serving

suggestions and a few examples

of how this recipe might work

in practice. This is a teacher

called Armando and he's

attended a one-off session.

He's the one that attended that

training session on concept

checking questions and as you

can see, he is delighted with

what he's learned in that

session. He's made a plan to

implement those concept

checking questions in his

teaching and he's invited a

colleague to observe to his

class um after two months. So

he's got all of the ingredients

and he's followed the method it

and after two months, his

colleague is gonna come to

Armando's classroom and

hopefully see that there's been

an impact in learning outcomes

amongst his students. Another

example is Denise. Denise has

decided to take a Delta course

So she's doing the diploma and

she's taking the course over

nine months. So, she's she's

planned in that time. She's got

that sustained teacher learning

going on. And as part of the

course she's implementing

changes to her teaching and

getting regular feedback from

her tutors because they're

observing her for her

assignments. And she needs to

regularly reflect on on how

things are going for her

assignments. So she's checking

for impact. Um and making sure

that the changes to her

teaching are having an effect.

And the third example, the

third suggestion is a group of

teachers and they've have uh

set up a reading group amongst

themselves. So, they meet every

and they read an article or

they read um Maybe a web page,

a blog post to get new ideas

about teaching Then they make

plans together to implement new

ideas in their classrooms and

they help each other with

giving feedback on lesson plans

and on lessons and on teaching

to make sure that the changes

are having an impact. Ah thanks

Paul. Paul has shared um the

webpage where you'll be able to

download the slides. a little

bit later. So, just to

summarize the aim of all of

this, the aim of our recipe is

better student learning. We

want teacher learning, of

course, but teacher learning is

only valuable if it then leads

to better student learning as

well. That's the impact that we

want. to get good results, we

need to do some preparation. Um

not just washing our hands but

making sure if we can, that the

environment is there, that

we've done some planning, that

we know what we're trying to

achieve. We've got our three

ingredients . Can you remember

the three ingredients ? The

three Ps. Answers in the chat

box. Just quickly before we

finish.

Personal, professional

practical, well done. Yeah, we

need all of those three

ingredients and remember, they

can be in any order, they could

be in different amounts. The

main thing, the really

important thing is that we have

all of them. If we only have

two, we won't get that impact.

the impact is the thing that we

need to check for as we go

through. We want to make sure

that the changes we're

implementing in class are

having an effect on student

learning. But of course that

takes time. We need to allow

that time.

and as

we've seen, it takes,

it's gonna be a lengthy

process. It's it depends of

course on the changes that

you're making. but meaningful

improvements to teaching take

months, not weeks. Alright. I'm

gonna stop talking now and give

you all an opportunity to ask

some questions. If you're

interested in um my references,

then, I've put them as links

and you'll be able to click on

these and download the papers

in the PDF that Paul shares on

the teaching English website.

Um but that's it from me. Over

to you, Paul. Great. Thank you.

Thank you, man. That was, that

was great. I was sort of, yeah,

that was the quickest 45

minutes that I've sat through

in a long time actually. It was

er quite riveting. Really

enjoyed it. Thank you for that.

Um yeah, really, yeah, I mean,

I think what I liked about it

and I think, hopefully, what

other people have have sort of

been putting in the chat from

is is that it's it's kind of AA

system or there's kind of the

idea that sort of the recipe

and the impact and everything

is something that you can apply

to to work to everything in in

your in your teaching

regardless of the sort of the

the the context or the

situation. It's a sort of I

suppose AA formula, now to to

to apply in the same way as,

you know, a recipe would be,

you know, you need ingredients

, etcetera, etcetera. Um.

Exactly. Was that, I mean,

that, was that the thinking

behind it that that, you know,

you could sort of take this and

apply it in, in any context.

Yeah, I think the thing that

Peter and I found training

trainers was that they really

weren't any of these kinds of

formulas available to trainers

and especially new trainers.

So, when you're a new teacher,

you learn the other PPP um or

test, teach, test, or things

like that and those formulas

help you kind of get going when

you're a new teacher. Um or

even if you're not such a new

teacher. Um but for trainers

there wasn't really anything

similar. Um okay. So so yeah

our our goal was to kind of um

create something like that for

for teacher trainers. But as

you say I think it's useful for

teachers as well who want to

kind of work on their

development. Okay. No it's

great. I mean I think a lot of

people do you know it's one of

those I think it sort of sort

of fairly typical path in lots

of ways that you know you're a

you're a teacher and you get

better at teaching and people

sort of come to you in the

staff room with questions and

they sort of see you as the one

with experience but making that

step to actually formally

becoming AA trainee, right?

There isn't a huge um I mean

there is support but but

something like this obviously

is is is great and is hugely

practical I think for for

trainers so and and this is in

to the book do you wanna just

give a plug for your the book

again? Sure. Yeah. Thanks So

the book is, as I say, it's

coming out in March. Let me

just spin by now. So, you can

see how it looks. It's coming

out in March. It's called from

teacher to trainer and it's a

book really for for the people

you just described Paul. So,

people that are experienced

teachers um. Yeah. Kind of

already supporting colleagues

and maybe giving a few training

sessions but they've never had

that chance to get any formal

uh trainer training. Um and

hopefully it provides

everything that they need to

know then to to feel confident.

Actually doing a bit more

teacher training. Great Great.

I think yeah and that's

definitely something that's

that's needed. So, yeah. Thank

you For it um with Peter as

well. Um I'm just looking at

some of the questions. A lot of

them are sort of around sort of

specifics. So, I'm I'm sort to

sort of group them and and try

to find some general ones. Um

I've been asked to ask you in

which level uh it's gone. Uh in

which level, in which level

observation can be done through

a colleague, you mentioned that

Pa Um I'm not quite sure what I

don't II missed that bit. I

mean I guess talking about peer

observations and if it's a peer

observations maybe. Um. I mean

I think any anyone can be doing

peer observations. It doesn't

matter how long you've been

teaching. You there's always

something it's always useful to

have a second pair of eyes in

the classroom. Um okay. To see

things that you might not see.

Yeah. Um and the only thing I

would say the best way to make

peer observation work. I think

is to be very clear um with

each other about what you want

your colleague to look for. Why

why are they coming into your

classroom? What what do you

want them to to look out for?

That's the best way to make it

work I think. Yeah Um okay,

questions from Katie, Katie

Simpson. Uh, any tips on key

terminology? There's a lot of

theory and terms, there are a

lot of, there's a lot of theory

and a lot of terms flying

around, that would be good to

have acronyms and terms reduced

to the most frequent, deemed,

basic, or most immediately hurt

That's quite true. That's a

good question. Yeah, I think um

I think going back to the

reason, the reasons for

presenting those key terms is

important. So, the the key

reason really is to to present

those the kind of underlying

basis for teaching practices so

that teachers can decide how to

tweak them and how to change

them and even whether to use

them. so that that's the kind

of threshold for deciding

what's important. we don't want

theory for theory sake kind of

flying around. Um but teachers

need to be able to understand

the the rationale for what

they're being asked to do in

the classroom. Okay. Great.

sorry just came back. There's

another observations. Um from

Penelope. Uh how can I

encourage teachers to

collaborate in peer

observation? They're sort of

moving away from the theme a

little bit but um I suppose it

means related to teacher

training, encouraging teachers

to collaborate in pill

reservations without making

them um uncomfortable with each

other. Yeah II think often it's

um So there's um there's a kind

of uh teacher training system,

I suppose, um that started in

Japan called Lesson Study um

and as part of lesson study,

teachers work in in groups

usually in a three and. Yeah.

They focus on one particular

thing um so I suppose it might

be concept checking questions,

something like that, um and a

lot, all observe each other. Um

taking notes and looking for

for how they um deal with

concept checking questions or

deal with that one particular

practice um and I think that's

a good way of kind of making it

a collaborative and and sort of

equal thing. Everybody is kind

of equally invested in it.

Everybody can learn something

from other people. Hm. Um

That's what I'd suggest

Penelope. Yeah. That's the

winner when I was working um at

the teaching centre here in

Barcelona. Uh we used to have

um we used to where we set up

these action research groups

for people who are interested

in similar sort of aspects of

teaching um sort of based

around certain competencies or

whatever. You'd kind of meet

and and discuss that and then

the idea was they would observe

each other based on on some of

the discussion. So it was that

sort of it was collaborative

from the from the beginning. So

the idea of the peer

observation was was less, I

don't know, um, what's the

word? sort of checking. It was

more. Yeah. It was a part of

the collaboration. You know, it

wasn't, I don't know and it

seemed to kinda work quite

well. Yeah, I like it. It it

kind of comes back to that idea

of having a, if you have an aim

or a focus or a kind of goal in

mind, then that's, that's what

everyone's focused on. It's,

it's not kind of observation

for the sake of it. Just having

a look on Facebook actually

people are watching on

Facebook. I've had um this is I

mean it's amusing. Uh a

flamboyant uh a small called

flamboyant. It's asking where

your base geographically so

because they'd like to come and

have training with you if

possible. so that that became.

And based near Cambridge,

flamboyant? Yeah. There you go.

Get in touch with Cambridge. Um

so I'm just having a look

through some of the the

comments on Facebook cos I know

we do have an audience er on

Facebook and I apologise I tend

to sort of neglect you perhaps

a little bit. Um so I'm just

looking through the comments.

Er the question might be

ingredients . Er does it make

it any does it make a

difference if any of the

ingredient if any of the

ingredients are not as per the

requirements. So maybe like I'm

not quite sure what that

question Um. Let me just search

but. No, it doesn't. I mean,

one of the things that um Peter

and I certainly find is that in

different, so we do a lot of

travel um and we visit teachers

in different countries and in

every country, there is there

is some things that you can't

do. There's always, there's

always a limitation somewhere.

So, um so yeah, I said it, I

said that you need access to

two classrooms but that might

not be possible. You might just

have one classroom. I said that

you need access to expert

input. You might not have a

trainer available You might

only have access to expertise

from the teaching English

website for example. So there's

always um or the Cambridge

website. Um so there's there's

always a limitation somewhere.

Um and you just have to kind of

make it work. But the real

important thing is to have all

of those three ingredients in

some form.

I mean, obviously, you know,

we're we're sort of living in a

in a weird time at the moment

where a lot of people are still

teaching um remotely. Um there

is a question around remote

teaching and they just sort of

wondered how this how how the

book that you've written um is

it is it applicable or can it

be used in in AXX trainers and

by teachers or by teachers who

wanna become trainers but sort

of in an in an online context

does does it kind of follow

that what's there in the book

for presumably based around the

idea of of of trainers working

in a train in a physical sort

of space. Um presumably if

you're working online or if

you're training online, then,

then, it's it's a question of

looking at the book and and

adapting elements of it um to

to an online context. Yeah,

that's a good question. I mean,

uh we were kind of lucky in a

way that the pandemic hits in

the middle of writing the book

because we we'd focused a

little bit on online, online

training um but um kind of post

pandemic that's that's formed a

much bigger part of the book.

And the thing is that um that

teacher learning is the same

whether the teachers are

learning online or face to

face. So it's still um those

three ingredients are still

needed. Um yeah. And teachers

still need to go through that.

Those steps of input to

implementation. Mm hmm. Towards

impact. The only thing that's

different or difficult is when

you're trying to train teachers

online to then go and teach

face to face because it becomes

quite a challenge then to it's

a challenge to demonstrate the

face to face teaching

techniques and it's a challenge

for them to be able to practice

those those techniques. Sure.

Okay. Yeah yeah. maybe that

could be um AA sequel to the to

the book. Yeah. Can I get you

some of that? I'll I'll pitch

that. Yeah, yeah, big. just on

that on the books, I know you,

you had, you sort of put some

references there at the end,

if, I mean, obviously, your,

your book when it comes out in

March will be the, the, the,

the perfect book to go to. Um,

a couple of people have asked

about other materials or books

regarding um, teaching, well,

teaching future teachers, um,

some more, I suppose around

some pre-service, but, but also

I guess, you know, we're,

we're, we're, we're, where are

your reference points, what,

where did you look, or who did

you look at, in order to sort

this book together. Hm that's a

good question. So, we looked at

um a lot of Um a lot of

research, most of the research

on on teacher learning comes

from comes from teachers of

other subjects. So it comes

from kind of mainstream

education Um so teachers of

maths or teachers of science um

and things like that. But

there's a really good um I'm

just gonna try and uh share a

link to this particular

resource because it's a really

good one and it's free. Um

that's why you're doing that.

You got it? Okay. I've got it

here So this is this is AA

white paper that's published by

Cambridge a couple of years ago

that kind of collects the um

the research up to that point

on teacher learning and what

makes for effective teacher

learning. Um and puts it into a

nice simple acronym. Inspire.

So that's a good starting point

for anybody that wants to read

more. But um yeah as you say

our book out in March um will

be obviously the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the guide,

the, the, the Bible. The Bible

of of teacher training, yeah.

Um, I'm just gonna have a

little plug actually as well.

We've also got on the teaching

English website, so I'm just

gonna, pick up on that and say,

yeah, we do have, there's a

whole section on teaching

English, which is, um,

dedicated to teacher educators,

um, and, it's, er, based around

the professional practices that

are, are for future educators,

um, the redeveloped the British

Council. So there's there are

there's also resources there.

I'm just gonna put a link in.

Sorry for the for the plug.

It's really good. I think the

the um yeah the the teaching

English teacher educator

framework is a really good one.

It's been I mean it's been

revised. Um so so some of the

the terms are being changed and

added and edited and and sort

of made a little bit. I think

easier to um to relate to. So

but yeah that's that's that's

put a link in something to to

have a look at possibly. Until

until um last book comes out

obviously. Er okay Um I just

think this time for one more

question Uh let's have a look.

This is a question on the face

especially from Tigram Mikayo

Yang. That's probably terrible

pronunciation. I do apologise.

Uh I wonder whether the order

of the three Ps does not depend

on the experience of the

trainees.

that's, yeah, that's, you have

a point there too, Grant, that,

I think that's a factor. If if

you're planning a training

session um then that's

something to think about. So,

if your teach, if your training

teaches to uh um Pre-service

trainees , you might begin with

AA kind of lesson demonstration

and model some practices for

them. So, you start with a

practical stage

whereas if you're if you're

training experienced um

teachers, you might still start

with the practical stage but

instead of modelling um those

techniques you might ask the

trainees to actually perform

the the techniques themselves.

So it it's just a kind of

different a different slant. Um

but it yeah it does make a

difference to to how you plan.

Thanks. Thank you, Matt.

That's, that's, that's

brilliant. Um, yeah, lots of

really, really positive

comments in the chat. I was on

Facebook, um, and no doubt,

will be in the feedback as

well. Um, I'm gonna sort of

have to leave it there. I'm

just gonna very quickly share

something if you don't mind,

and just, to tell people what

we've got, coming up. Okay, so

I hope you can see that. Um, so

obviously it's not tomorrow

yet, I'm a story with Matt, er,

but just in case, er, your

looking forward to or you

haven't registered yet or

you're thinking what can I do

tomorrow at 12 o'clock midday

and then at 5 o'clock mid uh UK

um to for more professional

development. Uh we've got Joe

Gore um at 12 o'clock UK time

tomorrow and she's gonna be

talking about teaching

teenagers um and looking at the

things like flow and the random

factor. So um so that'll be

interesting And then later on

we've also got we've got

Jessica Mackay and is gonna be

looking at using WhatsApp for

interactive tasks and that's

tomorrow at the same time as

this webinar is. Uh you can

register for both of those

still. Um you have some spaces

left. Uh so please do uh go to

Teach English and register for

those um sessions if you're

able to. Um if not as with

today we'll be recording um

everything and everything will

be available to watch. Um

shortly after the live.

Broadcast. Um and then later

this week on Friday we've Nicky

Hockley who's gonna be looking

at digital literacies and then

um later on Kerry Jones and

Kath Billsborough are gonna be

looking at ecolitercy. Um what

that is and why it is and how

it is. So um so we've got quite

a lot coming up. Um but that's

not for now. Um right now we'll

still be Matt. So um just to

say thanks ever so much to you

uh for joining us. Uh I know

you're busy. Um so I really

appreciate you taking time out.

Pleasure. Thanks Paul. and and

also to everyone who's been

watching on Zoom. Thank you

ever so much for registering

and joining in and um being

great participants in the chats

and also on Facebook. Um those

of you who've been watching on

Facebook, thank you and uh

special mention also to Marcus

and Karen who um as usual have

been doing a fantastic job of

moderating all the comments and

everything on Facebook. That's

all we've got time for. Um

Matt, I'll let you get back to

your afternoon evening and

everyone else the rest of your

day. Enjoy the rest of World

Teachers Week cos we've decided

to call it now. And um we'll

see you next time. Fantastic.

Thanks everyone. Cheers Matt.

Thanks all. Bye bye.